AAF Examines Federal Infrastructure Asset Recycling Option

Patrick Hefflinger

The American Action Forum (@AAF) released research examining the potential of infrastructure asset recycling to fund new infrastructure projects. The research finds that while asset recycling could be a good infrastructure funding strategy for state and local governments, it may be difficult to implement at the federal level.

Key points:

Asset recycling is a measure that enables the government to fund infrastructure investments through proceeds made from the sale or lease of public assets, typically fixed assets, to the private sector.

While asset recycling could be a viable strategy for state and local governments, a federal asset recycling initiative could be challenging.The U.S. government has less than $270 billion in non-defense fixed assets for potential recycle, with many assets unlikely to attract permanent or temporary private sector investment.